Don’t be Greedy – A point on Multicultural Marketing for Organisations trying to reach communities.

We are often asked by clients to solve a particular problem – it might be to increase breast or cervical screening for women from particular communities, increase participation in family life by men from communities, change health habits, increase safety.

Our first question is always around the target audience and secondary target audience.When presented with a problem there is always a solution, but with multicultural marketing, the more targeted, local and culturally appropriate the content, the more likely we are to have success.The campaignIt's not a disgrace, it's dementia produced by Why Documentariesin conjunction with Multicultural Communities Council and Dementia Australia - in 11 languages, was produced very differently for each community. It was about debunking myths in the community and the success of the project was fantastic and spanning 10 years. It won the Grand Award at the National Multicultural Marketing awards and a NSW Health Communication Award – because it worked and increased referrals at times by 200% in communities.

It worked because it was specific to the communities where the change was needed, there was a key outcome, call to action and messaging was culturally in context.It's not innovative, not the latest graphics or animations, not for the general community. Each one is specific to the community. Many people outside of those communities might even find it boring to watch but that's not the point, it's not for them, it's not for you.

Many clients want to reach a target audience to create change, but want to be exciting and reach two or even three very different audiences with the same video.It's not possible in one video to make change in different audiences that will be effective.Campaigns need to be Multi-pronged if addressing different audiences with different content for different segments.If you want to ensure change, address your audience one at a time, clearly and remember the content isn't for you, it's for them.

Sandra Pires is a Multiplatform Producer and Director specialising in Multicultural Marketing and Australian History with international links.

2016 Best Small Business Winner in National Multicultural Marketing Awards